Now
the capital of Germany again, the energy of progress, supported
by billions of Marks, is changing the face of Berlin. At the heart
of this leafy city, criss-crossed with Berlin hotels, restaurants,
rivers and canals, is the Reichstag, the old parliament building,
centrepiece of the new German capital, and the grandiose Brandenburg
Gate.
The Brandenburg Gate (pictured upper left) leads to the parts
of Eastern Berlin that have almost regained their pre-war elegance:
Unter den Linden, a broad, stately boulevard, the Frederick
the Great statue, the Alte Bibliothek, St Hedwig's Cathedral,
and the flawless Deutsche Staatsoper. At the Potsdamer Platz
there is a vast new shopping mall and huge investment has poured
in by corporations; to the north a small hummock marks the remains
of Hitler's bunker.
Few vestiges of the wall, built in 1961, remain and Checkpoint
Charlie was destroyed. The museum at Haus am Checkpoint Charlie
records the wall's chilling history. One of the most monumental
structures in Eastern Berlin is the gigantic Fernsehturm or
TV tower with an observation platform for unbeatable views and
Alexanderplatz is the commercial and shopping hub of the former
Soviet sector. In Western Berlin, the Kurfürstendamm or Ku'damm,
is a 3.5km strip of ritzy shops, cinemas, bars and cafés where
you can check the throbbing pulse of the city. Berlin boasts
an admirable collection of museums: the Zoologischer Garten
forms the beginning of the Tiergarten, a restful expanse of
woodland where there is a series of museums centred on the Neue
Nationalgalerie. The great museums of eastern Berlin are centred
on the Museuminsel, and include the Pergamonmuseum and the Bodemuseum.
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